Dude Ranch

When you have seen enough of the pools here at the Cibola Vista Resort, you head on over to the corral.

Just a short jaunt across a 2-lane road, and you are at the Cibola Vista Dude Ranch.  Still within view of our hotel room balcony, we felt a world away.  The dust stuck to our flip-flops.  The smell permeated our noses.  The blistering sun beat down on our stetsons (or rather, Brett's baseball cap).  Our crew came in close contact with these beautiful horses...as close as possible without having to pay for our 9 children to go on the horseback-riding tour.

The horses were a huge hit!  No fear.  Even Layne was reaching out to pet the horsies.  R, who grew up with animals...in a place called Rice, Washington, warned the kids that horses may kick and bite.   Still no fear.  But, there was some biting.  Black Beauty took a bite of the drawstring on Landen's board shorts.  We all laughed as Dad wrestled with the horse to save Landen and his shorts from becoming a morning snack!

We brushed off the dirt, and headed back to the pool.  Nothing like a morning at the hot, dusty corral to make you appreciate the pool with waterslide.

Grilling S'mores

We grilled.  Grilled pizzas are the perfect ending to a perfect summer day.  One pepperoni and one classic margarita, made to order.  Homemade pizza crust.  The truth is, I don't know how to prepare store-bought pizza dough (with any success that is!).  So, off to SuperTarget we went for some flour and yeast.  R had his doubts that we could pull off pizzas in our skimpily outfitted condo kitchen.  It was messy, and a little tricky... especially transporting 2 large pizza crusts from our condo kitchen out to the grill!  2 round placemats saved the day...but, I was determined! 

Tasty dinner, games with the Wisharts, and s'mores for dessert.  On the grill.  

  

Cibola Vista Resort

We headed northwest from Scottsdale to the Cibola Vista Resort.  Home of the famous waterslide.  And the beach entry pool.  And the whirling water pool.  And, when it's too hot to even go to the pool (trust me, it happens), it's famous for being a one-bedroom-condo.  With a jacuzzi tub.  And a kitchen.  And barbecue grills outside the door of your one-bedroom-condo.  And SuperTarget one traffic light away to buy all the necessities.  Or so we hear from the Wisharts.  And we are so excited to join them for the weekend here!

We are here!  Dressed to get wet.

The littlest one here loved the beach entry pool.

And swimming with the big kids:  Daddy and Abbey.

Landos, just loves to swim.  With his SpongeBob Squarepants kickboard.  The lack of pictures of this boy attests to how fast he moves in the water with this kickboard!  He also spent a good amount of time keeping up with "the brothers" as he calls Tanner, Brendan, and Conner Wishart.  Real boy stuff.  Water gun fights and cannonball contests.  

And Abs loved the waterslide.  Depending on the lifeguard.  The mean one said she was too short to ride.  The clueless one, didn't even look at her height.  He was instantly the nice one.   

  

We loved catching up with friends.   The Wisharts.  And special guests:  The Banners!

And, we love to resort it.   

Resort.ing It

Arizona Bound

Packing up.  Off to Arizona.  That's right, Barrack, Ms. Boxer, the San Diego Unified School District, and the city of LA.  No boycotting here.  We are off to vacation and enjoy the Grand Canyon State.  Not the Grand Canyon though.  Mostly, pools and malls.

3pm packed and loaded.

4pm Laguna Beach Detour.  R makes an appearance at a work function.  The kids and I find a great park for a cupcake break.

5:30 pm  on the road.

Movie.  Dinner break.  Movie.

Bedtime on the road.  3 kids sleeping in the car.  Layne was the last holdout.  She stayed awake until 10:15!  

Midnight arrival.  Scottsdale, AZ.

Landen

batman shirt.  bubble sword.  airplane in hand.  carpenter jeans.  all boy.

he picks out his own clothes to wear each day.  favorites:  batman shirt, big-wheel shirt, pants that zip off to become shorts, lightening mcqueen shirt, fourth of july shirt, vacation bible school shirt, lightening mcqueen and mater underwear-he has 6 pair, and when he is out, he is not happy.  he has made attempts at putting the old pair back on after the bath.  i like to think i have caught him every time...

he brings a toy everywhere.  you can't get him out the door, no matter what kind of hurry you are in, before he selects a toy or 2 or 3 to bring along. today, it was the airplane and bubble sword.

he is stubborn in the funniest ways.  he holds his ground for a pretty long time.  but, eventually, you can find something that peaks his interest, and drive a hard bargain.  today, there was bribery involved in getting this picture.  chocolate chips.  we are a little low in candy at our house.  chocolate chips work just as well, in a pinch.

we all love this little smiling face at our house.  he is a fun-loving, happy little dude.  who even shares his hard-earned chocolate chips, most of the time.
 

Kill her with Kindness

I made muffins.

Not just any muffins.  From scratch, whole wheat, apple muffins.  I hand delivered these to the self-appointed "handicapped-parking-space-police-woman."

I know, I know.  What happened to the NJ Housewife?

Well, the irony is that my new best friend is from New Jersey.  That really is all I needed to know, and I would have not had to think about the crazy parking lot incident for the majority of my evening.

I guess a good night's sleep is really a dose of perspective.  I had an arsenal of one-liners prepared for my next chat with this lady.  I actually considered borrowing my friend's stolen handicapped sticker and having it gleaming on my car window, parked in the handicapped spot at swim today.  I still laugh at that image!  I woke up today and thought muffins.  Kill her with kindness.  Forget the fight.

I grabbed these two beauties, chopped, mixed, baked.  I have to admit that by the time I packaged these up, I could send a little kindness with them.  A little kindness for this lady who must have had something pretty terrible going on in her life to take it out on the frazzled mom of three just trying to get her kid's swimsuit size right.

I thought it would take a lot more nerve to go talk to her today.  I anticipated my heart pounding so loudly that I would stutter over my words and sound as crazy as she did yesterday.  But, it wasn't that bad at all.  And really, it couldn't get worse than yesterday, so what was I afraid of?  I don't remember how I started the conversation, but I saw a hard line across her face as I started speaking, so I quickly whipped out the muffins, and things softened from there.

Some 45 minutes later, we had hugged, gotten all the family info, discussed school politics, the economy, and her health struggles.  She helped Abbey with a skinned knee, picked up Layne's toy 5 dozen times, and shook hands with Landen.  We ended with her asking me to teach her daughter piano!  I might even consider that.

As we walked out of the pool area, she was having words with another gal who hadn't gotten her email, and I was telling Abbey her knee was fine and she needed to quit whining.
So she's a little short with people?!  So, I'm extremely unsympathetic?!
Hey...we've all got a little Jersey in us.